Nine states are joining forces with a prominent climate denier and coal company owner to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over its new regulations on carbon emissions from coal plants, arguing that the EPA has no authority to make the rule.

Filing a brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, the nine states – West Virginia, Wyoming, South Carolina, Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alaska, Alabama, and Kentucky – argued that the EPA is not allowed to regulate carbon from existing coal plants, and is attempting to impose ‘double regulations” on coal plants everywhere. The states are seeking to join a lawsuit recently filed by Murray Energy Corp., the largest independently-owned coal company in the country, which is asking the court to put an immediate stop to the ‘disastrous” rule.

Murray Energy’s lawsuit was spearheaded by company owner Robert Murray, who originally threatened to sue the EPA over its carbon regulations in early June. The reason he wanted to sue, he said, was that climate change is fake, that the EPA was lying about its existence, and that the earth was actually cooling.

A few weeks later, Murray made good on that promise and sued – though the lawsuit did not include […]